The U.S. market rates anywhere from mildly overvalued to very overvalued relative to other developed markets. Foreign markets might be the last remaining pocket of yield that isn’t overvalued.

Despite continued question marks surrounding the effects of Health Care Reform, sentiment seems to have shifted for the better, and a number of broad industry drivers are trending in a promising direction. This group currently has three categories rating Excellent in our domestic group model.

This group moved back into the Attractive range in September. We like the group’s business model, industry M&A momentum, and stocks’ ability to generate free cash flow. All in all, companies in this group are good candidates for investors hunting for High Quality.

A look at prior debt ceiling debates and patterns around resolution dates gives no surprises: markets are weaker in the two weeks before but stronger in the month after a resolution is reached.

A look at prior debt ceiling debates and patterns around resolution dates gives no surprises: markets are weaker in the two weeks before but stronger in the month after a resolution is reached.

The large valuation discount on foreign shares has narrowed a bit, reflecting better relative action in foreign shares over the past 14 months and relatively weaker foreign fundamentals.

Sectors that become the object of obsession during one economic cycle tend to remain cyclically depressed in the following one.

Low volatility isn’t a bearish omen in and of itself, and we found stock market volatility levels to provide much near-term directional help.

The historical batting average of this strategy has been decent, with gains in 9 of 18 years along with “excess” returns over the S&P 500 in 10 of 18 years. The best Bounce seasons have occurred when the market was either down for the year through September, or up only modestly.

With a wide range of market cap choices, an excellent technical profile, and less dependence on federal spending than you might think, this group has compelling stories of future profitability and growth.

Identifying opportunities given this summer’s momentum reversals and currency vulnerabilities.

The celebrated gains in corporate profitability over the past decade and a half are attributable primarily to proportional declines in “below the line” items like interest expense and corporate taxes.

Buying global groups with strong price momentum has been a winning strategy. Will it continue?

Small Caps have an historically high P/E premium of 15% vs. Large Caps. This premium could go higher, but we’d be reckless to call for a long-term extension of Small Cap leadership given this premium.

The list of new lows is dominated by yesterday’s darlings, “bond-like” stocks. In particular, Utilities and REITs have been hammered. However, not all of the stock market’s high yielders have been trashed.

Leadership isn’t warning of impending weakness in either the U.S. economy or the stock market. Market breadth, on the other hand, is highlighting risks that aren’t evident when inspecting leadership alone.

We measure the sensitivity of common stocks to changes in interest rates using Implied Equity Duration. Growth-oriented sectors tend to have higher duration than Value-oriented sectors, while regional differences are largely explained by interest rate and risk premium differentials.

We examine Emerging Markets from both the top-down and bottom-up perspectives as we try to identify where to move and what to expect. We check in on two successful EM thematic group ideas as well.

With many (but not all) of our valuation metrics in overvalued territory, we present two histograms from our forthcoming quarterly BenchMarks publication that make the case that stocks are cheap (well, almost).

Technology may be the biggest sector disappointment in the current eight-month leg of the rally, if not for the entire bull run from early 2009.